Coming Home
by gray-streaks
Summary: The first time Jason goes to his new home, they have unexpected visitors. When they think they're alone, the gods argue like children. Sequel to Staying Behind.


"I hope you don't mind sleeping on the couch for a few days," Sally says as she pulls into the tiny parking lot outside their apartment building. "We were using the spare room for storage space and we have it mostly cleared out-"

"But there's no furniture yet," Jason finishes for her grinning. "You've already said, about a dozen times.

On the seat beside him, Percy laughs, "I told you she babbles when she's nervous."

"I do not!"

"Sal," Paul reminds her gently, "You told the entire camp what happened the first time you took Perce to a pool."

"Because Clarisse totally needed another reason to laugh at me," Percy mutters.

"Okay, maybe a little," she relents, turning off the engine.

"Really, it's fine," Jason continues as they get out of the car. "I can fall asleep just about anywhere."

"Must be genetic," Paul mumbles under his breath, but they hear him anyway.

Percy rolls his eyes as he pops the trunk, "For the millionth time, the godly side doesn't count. besides, it's a quest thing."

Jason nods, grabbing his backpack, "Can't be picky when you're running for your life."

"Assuming you get to sleep at all," Percy adds.

"And when you do it's for like three hours."

Paul and Sally sigh and trade these _looks,_ "It was your idea," he reminds her.

"You didn't have to go along with it," she jokes back, tapping the button on the car's remote and leading the way towards the door.

Jason grins, he's already used to the way the Blofises try to place the blame for their situation on each other. He knows they don't really mean it. He's still astounded at how quickly he became part of the family, it's baffling to him that two people can be so completely welcoming, especially after they way he came to Camp Half-Blood in the first place.

Sally keeps insisting that it's nothing, _what is family for,_ but he knows it's... well hes not sure what it is, but it's definitely something. And, like Percy said, the godly side of the family doesn't count and it counts even less when you're on opposite sides of the Greece-Roman divide, her 'family' argument is basically non-existant. He had tried explaining it to her, but she just laughed and asked him what his favorite color is.

But related or not, they'r buying him furniture and taking him clothes shopping in the morning (which will prove to be an interesting experience, Jason's always just gotten his clothes from one camp store room or the other), that has to be something right? And that's on top of letting him live with them for the next four years if he decides to finish high school.

They keep the banter going in the elevator, it's simple, normal and easier for Jason than anything has ever been before.

He loves it.

"Do you..." Percy starts frowning. He's already handing his bag to Paul and pulling his pen from his pocket.

Jason reaches for his coin as Sally takes his back pack from him. "Yea, but it's weird, like it shouldn't be a threat but is."

"Or it should be a threat and isn't," Percy agrees.

They grin at each other and take off down the hallway, transforming their swords as they go.

"We'll just wait here!" Paul calls after them. Overhead, the lights flicker.

Jason glances up as he follows Percy around the corner, okay, that's definitely weird. Percy skids to a stop in front of one of the doors so suddenly that Jason almost runs into him and has to catch himself on the wall.

It takes him a few seconds, but Percy digs his keys from his pocket and unlocks his front door for the first time in months.

"I don't get it," Jason mutters in Latin, "we haven't even been here yet, how-"

Percy shrugs and quietly pushes the door open. He steps through sword point first.

Jason steps in behind him and frowns. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong. Well, the DVDs are a mess and there's some funny looking gouges in the wood floor, but there's nothing weird.

"Okay..." Percy says slowly, "still feeling it?"

"Yup... what happened to the floor?"

"Huh? Oh, Mrs. O'leary's claws, it's a long story." Percy ducks through a door near the TV and pops back out a few seconds later, "Nothing in their room."

Jason checks the kitchen, nope nothing besides a few dirty coffee cups in the sink. The clock on the microwave flickers and then goes dark before starting to flash 00:00.

"What monster does that?" Percy mutters from behind him.

Jason shakes his head, how is he supposed to know?

They tighten their grip on their swords and move towards the hall, that's when they hear the voices.

"No, you _cannot_ put lightening on the ceiling, for the love of Olympus, how will they explain it to people?"

"Why should I care?"

Percy blinks and stares at Jason. Slowly, he shrugs and digs Riptide's cap out of his pocket. Jason carefully flips his sword and pockets the coin.

The last thing they need is to be accused of attacking the gods.

Somebody sighs and then Poseidon tries again, "You cannot-"

"I most certainly can too."

Percy blinks again and mouths, "Jupiter?"

Jason nods, that accent is definitely Roman. Now that they're close enough, Jason can feel the sky magic, notices the extra electricity in the air. Well that explains the lights. And he can recognize the strange feeling on the floor, it's something that happens when the Gods are together in opposing forms. It's not a bad feeling, just confusing, and not one he had expected to have again.

"You're already doing weird things to the wiring, let's go before they get home."

"Nobody asked you to come," Jupiter says dryly, "Honestly, somebody would think you were invited."

"I wasn't just going to sit around and let you destroy my son's home."

"It's my son's home too, if you hadn't noticed, and all I'm doing is improving one room."

"I'm not so sure keeping the mortals awake with a constant thunder storm is an improvement," Poseidon mutters.

Percy grins, Jason glares at him, "What do we do?" he mouths.

Percy shrugs, "How am I supposed to know?"

"It's bound to be a better improvement than what you did, don't think I did see you-"

"AH HA!" calls Paul from the living room, "You were taking a while, so I thought maybe you needed some back up... wait where are the monsters?" There's a loud crash, "Oops."

"Congratulations," Sally says dryly, "you killed the lamp. Now put that thing away before you hurt yourself."

There's a moment of silence in the other room and then Jupiter, it's definitely Jupiter and not Zeus, stick his head out of the room. "You're here, you might as well back me up. Lightening is cool, yes?"

"Absolutely," Jason says instantly, "but um... I don't actually need it?" _Or want it,_ he adds mentally, but like hell he's going to say that out loud.

Jupiter frowns a little and then sighs, "We'll compromise." He disappears. "You, out."

Poseidon stumbles out into the hall like he's been pushed and the door closes behind him. "Hello," he says cheerfully.

"Do I even want to know?" Sally asks, stepping carefully over the broken lamp and dropping all of the bags on the couch.

"He's finishing Jason's room," Poseidon says arching his eyebrows in a way Jason's surprised to recognize as Percy's 'well, duh' expression. "Hey, kid."

"Hi, Dad."

"Uh huh and you're just here to help coordinate the shades of purple."

"He wanted to put real lightening on ceiling... and I couldn't let him have all the fun."

"He's not around enough to need a giant fish tank."

"It's completely self-sustaining," Poseidon protests, winking at a grinning Percy, "and it's a hippocampi tank, there's no fish in it."

Percy blinks, "Wait, seriously?"

Poseidon hums, "Tiny ones," he says holding his fingers no more than three or four inches apart, "new species, Olympus is boring after the first couple of days." He shrugs.

Percy blinks again, "I'll be right back." He ducks around Poseidon and opens his bedroom door. "Wow, okay," he mutters as he steps inside. Jason can see a lot of blue, and not much else. It smells like the sea, but that might just be Poseidon.

A few seconds later, that feeling of unease that Jason has been feeling since the elevator disappears. Either Jupiter is now Zeus or he's left through the window. Jason tries not to take it personally, but seriously?

Poseidon turns to Jason's door and frowns, and then turns his eyes to the ceiling, "You could have at least said hello."

Jason winces slightly as thunder rumbles outside. Why does Percy get to have an awesome, even if it's not perfect, relationship with Poseidon when Jupiter won't even look at him for five seconds? Sometimes being Roman sucks, not that he thought that permanently switching camps would change that.

Percy comes back out of his room, concentrating on something in his hand. It's takes a second for it to sink in, but once it does, Jason forgets about his daddy issues for the moment. Mostly.

"Okay, that's cool."

Percy laughs and looks up from the orb of water suspended in his palm, "Dude, you can fly."

"You can have a water balloon fight without the... you know what, never mind that's pretty lame."

Percy snorts and holds up the water in his hand, "Here, meet Eric." Swimming around in the ball of water is the teeniest hippocampus that Jason's ever seen, not that he's seen very many, but still. Seriously, the things barely bigger than Percy's thumb and a color that's too dark to be silver, but not quite grey either. And it wants absolutely nothing do with him, if the way it's trying to hide behind Percy's fingers is any indication.

Poseidon closes his eyes for a second. "Eric."

"It's what he said," Percy says shrugging one shoulder before turning his attention to Eric, "Oh relax, he's not going to... yes I'm sure... I'm bigger than he is!" He sighs and glances at Jason, "Promise not to electrocute them?"

Laughing, Jason says, "Yea, yea, I promise."

"See?" Percy asks his hand.

Tentatively, Eric comes out from behind Percy's fingers and pokes his head out of the side of the orb. The water jiggles a bit when the tiny hippocampus breaks the surface tension, but Percy grinds his teeth and manages to keep it stable. Barely.

Jason holds up one finger and Eric bumps his head against it.

"Can I..." Paul begins pulling away from his spot against the back of the couch.

"What? Oh, yea," Percy says, carefully sliding past Jason and out of the hall, he brow furrowed a little as he focuses on keeping the water together while he moves. Jason wonders how long he can hold it, probably not long.

Jason glances at Poseidon, well... this is awkward. They hadn't had much to do with each other in Greece, given permission to interact, the gods had, understandably, spent most of their allowed time with their own kid and the big three had all but ignored their nephews. Not that Jason had seen much of Jupiter or anything. Seriously, having the King of the Sky for a father isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Despite it being a sunny late summer's day, so perfect they may have been in camp borders, thunder rumbles again, and for a moment, Jason thinks his dad heard him, but then Poseidon rolls his eyes at the ceiling.

"That would be my cue," the god says.

Percy looks over a bit guiltily, like he had just realized he had spent most of their time ignoring him.

Jason blinks a little when he realizes that Eric isn't in his water bubble anymore, but is running (galloping?) up Sally's arm instead. The little hippocampus turns around at her elbow and runs gleefully back down to Percy's hand literally diving off the tip of Sally's fingers into his water...which instantly fell apart and flew in all directions that weren't towards Percy.

Percy rolls his eyes and glances around his feet, before carefully kneeling down and scooping up the little hipoocampus. Eric immediately curls up in his cupped palm and Jason can see him shaking even from the hallway. Percy gently strokes a finger down Eric's spine, "Relax, little guy, you're fine.

Thunder rumbles again for a third time, loudly enough that even Paul glances up nervously. Poseidon scowls at the ceiling and, after giving Sally an almost hopeless shrug, turns into a warm breeze and disappears through the living room window.

"Thanks, Dad," Percy murmurs in Ancient Greek just loud enough for Jason to catch. He starts to head back to his room, probably to put Eric back in his tank before he dries out, but Sally stops him and holds out his duffle bag in with an arched eyebrow. He grins and takes it before disappearing into his room.

Jason goes over to grab his backpack, but Sally tosses it to him before he reaches the couch.

"At least you don't have to sleep on the couch?" she says, clearly trying to cheer him up, so maybe he hadn't hid his disappointment in Jupiter as well as he had hoped.

It feels unnatural, but he manages a smile, "I'm just worried about what a compromise means."

She grimaces a little bit, "Only one way to find out?"

"Yea, I guess," He mumbles, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

"And we're meeting the Chase's for dinner tonight," Paul put in, carefully kneeling on the floor and starting to gather up the larger pieces from the lamp he broke.

Jason's smile is more genuine this time. The Chases, all four of them, had arrived at Camp Half-Blood to pick up Annabeth and Piper and had suggested meeting up in Time Square once the girls were settled into their dorm room. He had almost forgotten. "Thanks."

He starts to turn away, but Sally suddenly steps forward and pulls him into a hug. He automatically tenses up. Jason's never really been one for hugs, but thanks to Piper, he's starting to suspect that it's the legionnaire training. Still, this is different than any hug he's ever had before. She lets him go just as he's realizing that he should probably hug her back.

Sally sighs a bit, glancing at the wet and gouged floor and shakes her head, "We are never getting out deposit back," she mutters.

Jason grins to himself as he heads back down the hallway. He glances in Percy's room as he passes it, but there's still enough sea magic in the air around the door that lingering long doesn't seem like a good idea. He was right about the blue though and he thinks he saw a fountain.

He hesitates outside his door for a second, "Well here goes nothing," he mutters as he turns the knob and steps inside.

It looks a lot like his house back in New Rome. He runs his hand along the familiar purple and gold bedspread. Actually, it _is_ his house from New Rome or parts of it anyway.

He drops his backpack to the floor and stretches out on the bed. It's not as soft as the pegasi down mattress he has almost gotten used to on the Argo, but it's better, more Roman. Can a bed be distinctly Roman or Greek?

He certainly thinks so.

He can live with this, Jason thinks, folding his arms behind his head.

But wait.

He opens his eyes and risks a look at the ceiling.

Where are the lightning bolts?


End file.
